1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to both a method and an apparatus for balancing the traffic at a multi-page web site on the Internet. Specifically, the system analyzes the number of "hits" for each page of the site and can automatically nest links on more visited pages to entice the user to less visited pages.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet, also referred to as an "internetwork", in communications is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network (with packets if necessary). When capitalized, the term "Internet" refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Operating costs may be reduced by providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of public records online.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply "the web". Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the web. In the web environment, servers and clients effect data transaction using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). Information is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify "links" to other web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. Each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a "page" or a "web page", is identified by a URL. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information by the web "browser". A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by a URL at the client machine. Retrieval of information on the web is generally accomplished with an HTML-compatible browser.
When a user desires to retrieve a page, a request is submitted to a server connected to a client computer at which the user is located and may be handled by a series of servers to effect retrieval of the requested information. The information is provided to the client formatted according to HTML. Typically, personal computers (PCs) along with work stations are typically used to access the Internet.
Web sites include a home page that can provide an introduction to the web site and its contents. The web site can include many pages, a portion of which are accessible from the home page. The home page can contain links to other pages within the web site as well as links to other web sites. A single company may have multiple web sites or a single web site with multiple pages. The pages are generally grouped into directories. For example, the home page for a large corporation may have a link to pages containing product information, corporate information, job listings within the corporation, as so forth. If the product listing link is selected, then a the next web page displayed might show a directory of product families. For example, an electronics manufacturer might have a product page that gives links to additional pages on facsimile machines, with another link to pages for the company's copier machines, or digital cameras. When the facsimile link is selected, a listing might appear showing the various models of facsimile machines available. Thus, a user navigates through the company's web site.
Not all pages within a web site are visited with the same frequency. Carrying on the example above, maybe the site contains a total of one hundred web pages including the home page. Perhaps, twenty of those pages are devoted to facsimile machines, with three of those devoted to high speed facsimile machines. After analysis, it might be discovered that those three pages received over sixty percent of the web site's visitations or "hits." Additionally, it might be discovered that five of the pages received no hits at all. Thus, a need exists for a method of balancing traffic within a web site. Such a method should provide an enticement or a link to motivate the user to visit the less popular pages.